Well, I loved it. The funny thing is I don't like musicals, but for some reason, the songs in this show just... work, more often than not, and this episode, which was practically wall-to-wall songs, was a lot of fun to me. Don't ask me to explain that.

If we could sort of take the feel of the end of the episode to be a precursor of what's to come in s4, then I'd have to say I get the feeling that the rest of the mane 6 won't simply be overshadowed by the "new" Twilight. Everything in that final sequence was so inclusive, so about them instead of just being solely about her. Put it this way: it seems like Twilight won't be completely overshadowing everyone else if she herself has anything to say about it.

Okay, yes, slightly rushed. Probably would have worked better as a two-parter, but honestly, I felt it was a very minor thing. Usually when I identify "it felt rushed" as the main flaw of an episode (of anything, not just FiM), it's a pretty glaring sense that this was two episodes worth of story crammed into one. But somehow, it worked anyway, despite feeling... sort of quick. Maybe that's even a better word than "rushed"; things moved quickly, but I was having so much fun watching the ep that I didn't care, so it's hard to seriously call it a major flaw.

The swapped cutie mark parts made me laugh, especially Rarity's "Oh my, what a terrible dream I had... Or, maybe I'm still having it...", and the part where Twi and Fluttershy start singing and Dashie has to remind them that she is still stuck in the kettle!

This is a society where your lot in life is assigned to you in some way at a very early stage in your life and then you're supposed to stick with that for the rest of your life and be happy with it

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I dunno... I never saw it that way. In my view, nothing is being "assigned".

The cutie mark - that is to say, a symbol that appears out of nowhere one day on your body to reflect your special talent - is clearly a reflection of the inherent magic of their world. But I don't believe it's, I'm walking along, a cutie mark appears - it's, say, a quill. Oh, huh, I guess I'm supposed to be a writer. Um, ok then, guess I'll go write.

Rather, it's - I like writing, it's a hobby of mine. Now I'm not a kid anymore, you know, I REALLY like writing! Maybe I'll try to write a book. Oh hey, a writing cutie mark appeared.

The cutie mark appears based on the existing predilection for - and some skill in - a given craft, as opposed to the cutie mark just appearing and then the character having to shrug and say WELP, GUESS THAT'S MY LOT IN LIFE. Note that the mane 6 all got theirs in relation to something they were truly passionate about - in all of their cases except Twilight, it was something they didn't realize they were that passionate about until just that moment, but it was still clear that their enthusiasm and ability in whatever area is what caused the cutie marks to appear when they did.

That the characters were basically acting like their cutie marks had been "assigned" in this ep was one of the consequences of the spell gone awry.

That's my take anyway. Though it doesn't at all address another aspect you brought up, which is the possibility of simply wanting to pursue something else instead later in life. For that, I got nothin'; maybe it just doesn't happen in this world, haha.

Overall I've been pretty happy with this season - a few mediocre eps but also a few that I thought were truly fantastic, and a great finisher. Really looking forward to s4!

The swapped cutie mark parts made me laugh, especially Rarity's "Oh my, what a terrible dream I had... Or, maybe I'm still having it...", and the part where Twi and Fluttershy start singing and Dashie has to remind them that she is still stuck in the kettle!

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Yes! This!

Rarity's comment after seeing Applejack's "outfits", Rainbow Dash stuck in the kettle, tied up while the other girls are singing. Oh, classic stuff, and it reminds me of some of the best of Season One. I just think they nailed this, I really do.

But so many wonderful ideas and concepts that were rushed. I wonder if they've considered doing extended eps on DVD?

I have to say RD trying to wrangle all the animals was probably the best mismatch, and Pinkemina down on the farm was the most heartbreaking. Coming from a farm originally, it's like she knew she should be able to handle it anyways, but it was so different from her rock farm she was well and truly at a loss to figure it out.

Definitely looking forward to the next season, S3 definitely felt the weight of Hasbro squeezing it in directions that weren't always quite right.

Sure sounded like her.... The credits were pretty exhaustive this episode (lookit all the Daniel Ingrams who contributed!) so if they had someone sub for her voice they would've have her credit in there too, and it wasn't.

My favorite moment was Pinkie's "Come on, Ponies! I wanna see you SMILE!!!" which had be cheering.

With a two-parter we could have seen more of the cast and town reeling from the swapping of cutie marks. In the compressed time frame it seemed like the time frame was just a matter of minutes between Twilight waking up and her figuring out how to fix everything. The whole episode apparently happened over the course of a day (from Twilight's wakeup song to the nighttime winged wonder revelation), after all. Not much time to see our heroines suffer before pulling through.